Cutting through the smog (Tackling stubble burning)

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 Cutting through the smog (Tackling stubble burning)

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• Long term vision needed: To penalise farmers (or giving notice or subsidies) for buring the stubble left after harvesting paddy in Punjab and Haryana, is incorrect. A different vision is needed.
• Dense smog in northern India: It contributes upto 20% to the dense smog in northern India during winters. Farmers are not really at fault, as much as short-sighted govt. policies are.
• Rotation of crops: From 1960s, wheat-paddy crop rotation was encouraged in Punjab and Haryana for higher production. Huge investments in Green Revolution were made in areas like irrigation and HYV seeds.
• Negative fallout: Land degradation, adverse soil health due to pesticide / fertilizer overuse, and reducing water tables!
• Paddy at the cost of others: Punjab saw paddy cultivation growing from 6.8% (1966-67) to 36.4% recently (Haryana saw it grow from 4.97% to 20%). What suffered as a result was maize, cotton, oilseeds and sugarcane. The MSP procurements and input subsidy policies also forced farmers to go this way only.
• 2009 Water Conservation Law, Punjab: It mandates paddy sowing only in June (rather than May), thereby reducing the time to harvest to 15-20 days only. Transplantation before notified day is impossible. The next crop is wheat, and crop yields are to be maintained as well - so best way out is stubble burning!
• How to tackle it ? Encourage crop diversification towards less water-intensive crops. If need be, use the "price deficiency system" as tried in MP and Haryana. Or try the Telangana model of cash support (Rs.8000 per acre per year).
• Pressure: Farmers have invested in seed drill machines (for wheat sowing after paddy harvest), and now they are being pressured to buy "happy seeder" machines to end stubble burning. Even at low costs, it will remain idle for rest of the year, and small/marginal farmers can't buy it. Asking companies to bring machines on rental basis is a better way.
• Uberisation: We can think of "Uberisation of agriculture", if an app-based support for all farm implements is given. That will make farming more mechanised, cost effective and employment-intensive.
• Paddy straw: Wheat residue is fodder for cattle, so is used. Paddy straw has high silica, hence animals can't eat it. But biomass generation in power plants, paper, cardboard mills is possible. Govt. should directly install biomass plants at farm locations. Achieving our R.E. target (227GW by 2022) will be aided.
• Summary - The only way to end stubble burning in farms of northern states is by adopting out-of-the-box solutions, and not the penalty method.

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